


Laughing Song

by endofmeandeverything



Series: A Place Apart [2]
Category: The Hobbit RPF
Genre: AU, M/M, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-04
Updated: 2015-04-04
Packaged: 2018-03-21 05:50:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3680331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/endofmeandeverything/pseuds/endofmeandeverything
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's a new scent in Richard's neck of the woods.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Laughing Song

intruder in his woods

wet-blooming earth and growing things and decaying leaves and wind and here and there little snatches of some unfamiliar male’s musk a tiny hint pricking his nostrils and leading him a merry chase through flickering full white moonlight where is he where

tease what a tease

puzzle

no circles going in circles crossing his own tracks over and over and he doesn’t mind not at all he likes hearing little encouraging yips and huffs as the other dances around him and leads him through glades and quickening spring streams and 

somehow he doesn’t bristle why doesn’t he mind scent of another male running through his territory

—no insult

no threat but why no threat— 

playmate

he wants to find the male and chase him sniff him and sniff him and smell all that musk close-up and hear his little huffs and oh he’s been so lonely so far from home and where is this friend

being led and he knows it knows the other is drawing him farther into the forest beneath the deep trees where it’s only black shadow and the cold beloved moonlight is shrouded by leaves and dense branch

he can see the teasing gleam of bright eyes just around the next corner

a little yip a little chuckle

he’s falling into a trap but he doesn’t mind doesn’t care at all

bright green eyes gleam a puff of warm breath in the cold air flick of shaggy tail

 _wait for me!_ desperate whine

deep grotto and the long lake rippling in the breeze clean water and fish and sand and light dancing glancing flicking over the rippled surface  
a long trail of paw-prints visible over wet earth leading to the other

who’s prancing at being caught bounding closer then darting away and it should feel like an attack but the other pounces and huffs and bows then darts off

_yes here I am play with me play with me!_

and he’s never felt his loneliness so keenly as he does now with the playful nip under his jaw and the snuffle in his ear and the soft hot tongue lapping his scruff and  
snuffling between his legs and the other is investigating and happy they are both happy good smells the other smells like pack so familiar but why he wants another long sniff and the other is patient like he knows a secret like it’s another puzzle another present 

the other trots circles around him nips his heels

_let’s play!_

never a sweeter enticement

 

The first thing Richard felt was languid pleasure, like post-orgasmic exhaustion. It was an entirely familiar feeling, but the body pressed alongside his and the scent that accompanied that heavy weight was not.  


Sunlight drifted through the leaves overhead, warming his skin and drying the viscera from the change in his hair and all over his still-tingling skin. Every small movement pained him, but he knew the stiffness would ease with a long hot bath and a large breakfast.  


He also knew that the man pressed against him was a stranger, but no Changer Richard had ever known (though they’d been few and far between) was ever shy about nudity or personal space. Undoubtedly there wouldn’t be any hard feelings regardless of prior association. He sighed, burrowing into the dank earth and savoring the hair that tickled his nose, thoroughly appreciating the long-denied feeling of waking with another of his own kind. Though his own pack had always been miniscule, even one other was better than the terrible loneliness of Running solitary.  


Good God, but they both stank. As usual, the lure of a long hot shower was the first human thought that returned to him (followed almost immediately thereafter by the allure of a very large breakfast of beans and bacon and eggs).  


“Ah,” said the man, and Richard came abruptly awake as he felt the sinuous undulation of long limbs against his own. No Kiwi accent, that. “Why’s it always such a mess?”  


A few good long blinks provided him with an unexpected (but not entirely unpleasant) view, one that had figured in his dreams for quite some time but was significantly more mortifying in reality.  


“Lee?” Richard wished his voice hadn’t come out so husky. It didn’t surprise him—he hadn’t ever been vocal in human skin or wolf skin, but the joy of howling had welled up last night with another voice to echo his own.  


The comfort of another body was abruptly denied him as he struggled away from Lee, clumsy like he hadn’t been in years, fumbling with his own long limbs. Open-mouthed and bewildered, Lee lurched up and reached out as if to help him stand.  


“Jeez, sorry, sorry, shit,” Lee babbled, unsteady on his own legs. “Rich—Richard, I mean—wait.” Lee stilled quite suddenly, one hand spread out in a plea. “Was that you last night? I should’ve known.”  


Morning sunlight glinted across his eyes, turning them green to gray to gold, and Richard swallowed. No wonder he’d smelled so familiar—he should’ve recognized those eyes even through the fog of his animal instinct.  


“As if we’re talking about some sordid affair,” Richard began, only to be curtailed by Lee’s snort.  


“So it was you!”  


“Lee—“  


Somehow, Lee’s laughter struck the tension from him. “Well it was a kind of ‘sordid affair’, wasn’t it? Either that or you’ve got a strange habit of sleeping naked in the forest. If that’s the case…I’ll keep your secret if you keep mine.”  


The joke fell flat between them as Richard struggled to find words.  


“I don’t,” Richard stammered “I’m sorry.”  


Lee frowned. “What for?”  


It was difficult to look at him. Weeks of longing, of savoring every glance passed his way, made him clumsy around Lee. He felt foolishly shy now, considering that they both stood naked and had only moments ago been entwined like lovers, skin to skin. Especially considering that his greatest secret had been revealed, and he now held Lee’s.  


“I don’t know what to say,” he finally admitted.  


“I’m always a little—” Lee rotated a finger near his temple and gave a bashful smile, “after a Change. Besides, this isn’t the worst surprise a guy could have. Imagine if it had been Pete.”  


“You’re awfully cavalier,” admonished Richard. He was taken aback by how unaffected Lee was.  


Good-natured as usual, Lee admitted: “I once woke up with a hard-on next to a man who must’ve been seventy if he was a day, so, you know.” He shrugged. Then, seemingly realizing what he’d said, blushed and looked away. “And now I’ve just told you that. I think you can relax. I’ve done the worst this yet this morning.”  


Richard’s finger twitched with the urge to reach out and take his chin, tip his face back up, but uncertainty held him back. How could it be Lee, Lee who he’d longed for since almost the first moment of their meeting, who had led him a merry chase last night. It might even have been flirting had they been human, but they weren’t human and Richard was unsure what to make of it. Perhaps his initial attraction was only the subconscious recognition of another male Changer, and one who shared his proclivities. They were rare enough even in larger packs; perhaps his body had fooled his mind. But with the scent of Lee’s skin and the memory of his laughter still fresh in his mind, Richard didn’t want to believe it  


The rumble of Lee’s stomach interrupted the soft chittering of birds and rustle of leaves, and he laughed at himself again. “My clothes are nearby,” he said, “and we have work to do.” He held out one hand again, this time in supplication. His eyes were pleading. “My trailer’s closer, and I have breakfast enough for two.”  


“Is that an invitation?” Richard couldn’t help but smile.  


“Of course!” Lee grinned brightly. “Come on, let’s get dressed and get out of here. I can only imagine what a mood I’ll be in if I have to get through today on an empty stomach. And somehow I don’t think granola and yogurt is going to cut it for you either.” He turned, bare feet shuffling through bracken.  


The long lean lines of his body sent fire racing through Richard’s veins, and he swallowed hard and followed in silence. Only his will and the desperate need not to humiliate himself kept him from showing his arousal at the sight of Lee sliding his jeans up his legs and the way his shirt ruffled his unruly hair. “I look like shit,” Lee joked, and ran both hands through his hair until it was a birds nest. He made a playful face, beaming when Richard finally broke his silence with a laugh.  


“I’m sorry,” Richard said again as they strolled leisurely back toward the lot. Lee had refused to put his shoes back on, kicking at dirt and small stones as they walked.  


“Hm. Why?”  


“I don’t know.”  


“I’m not. Sorry, I mean. I’m not sorry.” Lee nudged him with his shoulder and urged him to look up. “I hope you don’t mean you’re sorry.”  


“Not for—no.” Richard cleared his throat like he couldn’t clear his thoughts. “It was….” Lovely. Brilliant. I want to see you again. “Nice.”  


Lee hummed in agreement. “Less lonely. One of the bad things about traveling so much for shoots—you lose your pack.”  


“You have a—” It shouldn’t have been surprising. Lee was personable in human skin, and his behavior last night was of a wolf used to playmates.  


“’Course. It—ah—runs in the family. There’ve always been a lot of us about. First time I went to college I was on anti-depressants until I could get used to Running alone. You’re shy, though. You must have a small one.”  


“One other,” Richard murmured, “but she….”  


“Mm. Mating thing didn’t work out?” Lee asked, simply but sympathetically. Was Richard imagining the undercurrent of disappointment in those words? He risked a glance from the corner of his eye and found Lee staring straight ahead, his lower lip between his teeth.  


The sounds of the lot coming alive in the morning reached their sensitive ears, and Lee picked up his pace. Richard hurried along behind, the urging of his own grumbling belly sufficient reason to follow.  


“She wasn’t,” Richard blurted after a silence too long, and Lee looked over, slipping in through a side gate and into the circle of trailers there. He held it open for Richard, then shut it behind him.  


“What?”  


“My mate. I’ve never—.”  


“Just friends?” Lee teased  


“Yes.”  


The weight of Lee’s gaze was palpable, creeping into every pore and warming him beyond measure. He slowed, mouth filled with questions he couldn’t bear to ask, the air between them laden with unspoken words. At last he spoke up, voice breaking: “Lee….”  


The response was almost immediate. “Yeah?”  


Richard looked up, taking in the wet messy hair and the way his collar bones peeked from under the stretched neck of his old t-shirt. Was it his imagination, or could he see Lee’s pulse fluttering in that long neck. Hoping to find the words he needed, he cleared his throat.  


“I—“  


Someone slammed into his shoulder at a dead run, sending him staggering. Immediately Lee caught his elbow, and Aidan skidded to a halt.  


“Woah!”  


Richard’s gaze flicked away from Lee’s bemused smile. Aidan staggered, mouth open in an apology that stopped in his throat. One eyebrow rose and his eyes flicked from Richard to Lee and back again, taking in their wet hair and the day-old clothes and Lee’s hand wrapped around his arm. A wide grin crept over his face.  


“Is this a walk of shame?” he demanded. “Because it looks like the most obvious walk of shame I’ve ever seen, lads.”  


Richard was grateful for the expressiveness of Lee’s face; it said everything without words having to pass between them and without having to open his mouth to confirm or deny.  


“Finally!” Aidan crowed, slapping Richard hard on the arm and grinning like a loon. “Congratulations! Glad to see you found your stones and asked him proper.”  


The flush that came up was nearly painful, but he resisted the urge to either flee or to cuff Aidan across the ear in retribution. He could feel Lee’s expectant gaze upon him as Aidan galloped off, cackling, doubtless to inundate the entire lot with tales of a tryst that had never happened.  


After a moment of awkward silence, in which Richard could only stare down at his feet, Lee squeezed his arm and let him go. “’Finally’?” he asked gently. “What does that mean?”  


“Don’t be coy,” Richard murmured, and Lee’s answering chuckle gave him the courage to look up into the slow-blooming smile aimed at him. He knew he ought to explain himself, but 

Lee spared him by tilting his head in a bashful way that made Richard’s stomach churn and saying: “I’ve had stranger first dates.”  


Hope buried deep roots in his heart and bloomed as a cheeky courage Richard never knew he had. “I’m more a traditional sort.”  


Lee tucked his hands into the pockets of his jeans and scuffed the patchy grass with one bare foot. His gaze was questioning as he ventured: “Wouldn’t want you to think you made a bad impression. Maybe we could try again? Orlando told me about this place downtown that does great Greek.”  


“It’s due to be a long day. We’ll probably be hungry.”  


The way Lee perked up at the implied invitation set Richard’s heart hammering again. A little breathlessly—and perhaps Richard wasn’t the only one aching inside—Lee asked: “Seven, then?”  


“I’ll call you,” Richard affirmed, and Lee hesitated only a moment before ducking in to press a brief kiss against the corner of Richard’s lips.  


“Good. I’ll be waiting.”  


Struck dumb, Richard could only watch him saunter away with a spring in his step.  


At last he sighed: “ _Finally_.”

It was only later, when his stomach was turned inside-out with hunger and his body begged him for lunch, that he realized he'd forgotten his breakfast. It only made him smile, and remember that at least dinner would be satisfying.

 

mate where is his mate the night is waiting and his whole body crawling with the urge to run to leap to splash to play but he isn’t alone anymore he isn’t alone with the moon and the night and  


where is he?  


call out, call out to him where is he?  


_come to me!_  


answer there in the lee of the valley, teasing ululating howl and his ears perk and his nose picks up the scent and  


run run run toward the scent to get what he wants but his mate it fast and his mate is teasing always teasing dancing over an old rotten log then under the berry bush  
the leaves rustle marking his path leading closer and closer until he is so close and the forest smells only of him never a sweeter enticement  


_catch me!_  


surprise attack from the right and they tumble roll leap down a slope soft leaves in their fur and playful snapping and growling he’s on top now his mate bites his throat and the smell is so good  


he can’t help it he’s bigger he’s stronger and his mate bows lets him mount lets him bury teeth in the thick scruff press him down hold him still  
better than moonlight better than chasing  


his throat tight with growls: _mine mine mine_  


his mate whining twisting underneath: _yours yes yours_  


better than howling to crawl into their den small so small press together press around each other with flesh and fur so warm and soft  


a soft tongue over his eyes his muzzle his mouth his ears his chin all over and little huffs little whimpers in his ears: _happy I’m so happy_  


clean him lick him clean make him sleep  


not lonely anymore

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from the eponymous poem by William Blake.


End file.
